Terror Danjah is back at it again, kicking off August with another free release. It’s hardly been a week since Shock to the System was released, and now the legendary grime MC has lined up Hardstrumentals, featuring 29 instrumental tracks from his unreleased repertoire. Grab it for free here! (via Butterz)
Pittsburgh isn’t usually the place you associate with rad electronic music, but come October 1, that’s gonna change. Folks like Matthew Dear, !!!, Big Freedia, Dam-Funk, Oneohtrix Point Never (pictured above), and TOKiMONSTA are all set to take over the city’s first VIA Festival, and they’ll (usually) be accompanied by a host of visual artists, to include the likes of Kokoromi Collective, Mehmet Akten, Alison Childs, Nate Boyce, and plenty more. The first day’s events, taking place at Carnegie Mellon University, are all free to the public, and feature artist workshops. The Saturday and Sunday 18-and-over line-ups, happening at the famed Iron City Brewery and Lawrenceville Moose Lodge, respectively, are posted below. Weekend passes for $47 go on sale August 9 and can be purchased here or at select Pittsburgh stores.
Complete lineup:
AUDIO Saturday, October 2 @ Iron City Brewery
Matthew Dear
Dam-Funk
El-G / Zizek Club
Frikstailers / Zizek Club
Big Freedia
TOKiMONSTA
Egyptrixx
Onra
Steve Moore
Oneohtrix Point Never
Shawn Rudiman
Ekofield
Gangwish
Michael Johnsen
Margaret Cox
AUDIO Sunday, October 3 @ Lawrenceville Moose
!!!
Javelin
Fol Chen
Blues Control
Expensive Shit
Shindiggaz
VISUAL ARTISTS Saturday & Sunday
Kokoromi Collective
Mehmet Akten
Alison Childs
Nate Boyce
Carrie Gates
Riley Harmon
Kyle McDonald
Blair Neal
Rui Pereira
Gretchen Neidert
Nitric Burn Studios
Tom McConnell
Jen Inman
The sound of tribal guarachero has been percolating across the internet for awhile now, but, for the most part, ‘official’ releases have been hard to come by. The remix-heavy genre, noted for its unique Latin percussion, loping house beat, and squealing synth melodies, is dominated by young bedroom producers in Mexico, most of whom simply make tracks, post them online—usually on rudimentary and hard-to-navigate Spanish language blogs—and allow the natural web diffusion process to take place. That might change after today, as Monterrey’s teenage 3Ball MTY crew, with a little help from Toy Selectah, has released 3BALLMTY!, a free EP with five tracks of tribal guarachero goodness. Better yet, the guys have actually elected to spread the word about it. The entire EP is available for download here, but we’ve gone ahead and re-hosted “Amantes Guarachero” from 16-year-old Erick Rincón. (Other 3Ball members include Sheeqo Beat and DJ Otto, both age 18.) Like many tribal tunes, “Amantes Guarachero” (translation: Guarachero Lovers) is a bit manic, but its hyperactive, borderline-trance melody and incessant drums are sure to get folks moving, regardless of what side of the border they happen to be on.
Brighton trio The Qemists (pictured above) are getting ready to release their sophomore album, Spirit in the System, next week, but in the meantime they’ve been showering listeners with new singles featuring their oft-noisy, high-octane take on electronic music. “Hurt Less” originally surfaced last month, but now Ninja Tune has passed along this remix from bass-loving fellow Brit Hot City. The mysterious young producer turns up the tempo and thoroughly dirties up the track with galloping garage beats and potent synth stabs. He also manages to chop Jenna G’s vocals into a stuttering delight while keeping just enough of her diva turns intact.
03 Hurt Less Featuring Jenna G (Hot City’s Mega Vocal Bang)
Matthew Dear‘s new album Black City is already available digitally and via custom-made totem, but old-fashioned types that want its contents on CD or vinyl will have to wait until the ‘official’ release date on August 17. “Little People (Black City)” is the closest thing the record has to a title track, and it finds Dear stretching his legs over the course of nine-plus minutes. We first spotted the track over at Pitchfork, who called out the vocal similarities to both David Bowie and Yello, and that’s pretty right on. But it’s also worth noting that even though Dear’s vocals take center stage over the song’s relatively laid-back techno skeleton, “Little People (Black City)” really works as a dance cut, albeit a bit of a spooky, leftfield one.
OK, we know the dudes at Stones Throw like to get creative with their merchandise, but this might be a hip-hop first. Madlib and Intelligensia Coffee are teaming up to make a custom espresso blend inspired by the Beat Konducta. The limited-run blend is being debuted tonight at the cafe’s Pasadena location, and Intelligensia is calling the product “a syrupy, sweet offering that has kept (Madlib) awake long enough to average an album-per-day over the past three years.” We can’t vouch for the taste, but we’re certainly intrigued, and more importantly, we’re wondering how Diddy or Jay-Z did not come up with this first. Apparently, the hip-hop underground is leading the way in both beatmaking and brand-building.
No matter which of Kenneth James Gibson‘s monikers are employed (Eight Frozen Modules, [a]pendics.shuffle, dubLoner, etc.), a certain frigid sound and playfully austere production quality can be expected from the prolific producer’s output. With his forthcoming first release under his actual name, Delusional Tales and Non-Silence, the LA resident riffed with us on making music with his girlfriend, what he loves and hates about his hometown, and why he couldn’t care less about what you call his music.
Add one more name to your extensive list of musical monikers.
Phil Spector, but unfortunately that’s already taken.
The difference between Non-Silence and just plain loudness is…
“Non-silence” is the interlude that crowds your brain space in the peak hours of the night and early morning. That being said, those sounds also continue to grow into something completely new and fresh late in the afternoon.
Tell us about working with vocalist Kelly Johnston on “Give it Up, and Let it Go” and “Something in the Way.”
Kelly and I found a musical connection early on in our relationship, and her vocals came very naturally. She’s also my girlfriend, and we have other projects as well that were working on right now.
Studio fire! What two things do you save first?
Well, first I would save my cat, Bear, and then my hard drives! This actually happened once. There was a fire at my neighbor’s apartment, and [it] got very close and partially into our apartment. I had my entire studio dissembled and out the window in a couple of minutes. Waking up to a wall of fire at your door at 4 a.m. is not gleeful!
If you weren’t a professional producer, what would your dream job be?
I’d love to be a writer. I’ve attempted to write a book a couple times, but never get very far. I also used to work for a psychic hotline network; that was actually pretty great. I’ve talked about doing it again part time for fun and recording the conversations and using them some way in a project, but that probably wouldn’t be right.
Who were your childhood heroes?
Jack Tripper! He was great. I still watch old re-runs of Three’s Company, and wish the Regal Beagle was around.
Eight Frozen Modules – “Left Me”
Name one good thing and one bad thing about life in Los Angeles.
There’s many of both. To slim it down to just one of each is very hard. Good: the ocean. Bad: Hollywood!
In 20 years, what will Kenneth James Gibson be doing?
Kenneth will be in the studio somewhere somehow making something!
Better three-name musician: Richard D. James or Ludwig van Beethoven?
Ludwig van Beethoven. That’s a great fucking name!
What famous film would you most want to redo the score for?
So many. I’d love to do the score for Holy Mountain or Fitzcarraldo. Although, both [of] those are totally amazing, [but] would be fun to re-do.
If there were one song you could take out of your discography, what would it be?
Not a one! That could be a song, though.
Of all the genres your music has been called, which is your least favorite?
I honestly don’t care about genre names. I’ve always wanted to do many genres. It’s more fun that way! So yeah, I don’t really care. They can call it what they will. Makes no difference to me.
Tell us one tall tale you’ve heard about yourself?
That I use whiskey as mouthwash!
Delusional Tales and Non-Silence is out on August 10th on Culprit.
According to an announcement on the Warp website, Battles singer/guitarist Tyondai Braxton has left the band. It’s a surprising development, especially given the widespread anticipation surrounding the experimental NYC outfit’s forthcoming—and supposedly almost completed—new album. The group’s statement reads as follows:
Battles and Tyondai would like to let their fans know they have chosen to follow their own musical paths.
Due to Battles’ ambitions of finishing their second studio album followed by commitments to a full touring schedule in 2011, and Tyondai’s own commitments as a solo artist and his desire not to tour, both Battles and Tyondai have decided to move on without each other. It is a sad but amicable split.
Battles wishes Tyondai all the best”
Tyondai then followed up with a statement of his own, which reads in part:
I know for a fact that this is just a new beginning for Battles. Our model has always had a controlled shapelessness to it and I know John, Ian and Dave are looking forward sculpting an even better way forward. I look forward to be able to continue my music and am very excited at the prospect of being able to dig deeper in my own work.
Here at XLR8R, we must admit that we’re a little bummed. This is almost as bad as when drummer John Stanier left the band earlier this year.
While trawling the web today, we came across a new blog-spawned genre name: screwgaze. Yes, it’s obviously abhorrent, but it’s only marginally worse than the other meaningless names people are tossing around, like witch house and drag. Yet ridiculous labels aside, something is clearly afoot, as the tide of bedroom producers has gone dark and a new sound is emerging. Instead of the cheery summer vibes explored by their chillwave—another genre title that still makes us cringe—counterparts, this new crop has a taste for the occult and loves screwing its melodies and vocals into fuzzy oblivion. Dream Boat is the latest player in the saga, and although the project is based in Providence, it’s clearly in touch with similar-minded acts from around the continent, as “oOchre” is actually a cover of the song “No Summr4U” by San Francisco’s oOoOO. The track is taken from Dream Boat’s new EP, Fevers, which appears to have been released on cassette and is also available for free download (or purchase, for the kind-hearted) here.
